YouTube Beauty Community Calls Out Brand for Excluding People of Color

An uproar has sparked within the Youtube beauty community over a high-end makeup brand named Tarte Cosmetics… The excitement after its release was at an all-time high, but soon after seeing its shade range, the entire community has lashed out with their opinions and reviews.

Tarte cosmetics, usually known as a race-inclusive brand, has proved this statement incorrect. Tarte climbed the success ladder in early 2017 when they released one of their top products of the year, Shape Tape Concealer, which all of the beauty gurus love and recommend. However, the new foundation doesn’t seem to be too much of a hit. After watching all of their video reviews – the product doesn’t seem to be the issue at hand, but rather the shade range. They released 15 shades of the foundation when usually brands will release 30-40 shades. 12 out of 15 shades are specifically for white people depending on their undertones, and only three for people of color(POC). The lack of awareness of the need for more shades is blasphemous, as any company should know the demographics to which they are selling to.

A specific YouTuber, who is a POC, made some very good points in her video about the foundation, and the company. Alissa Ashley has over one million subscribers. So far, her review of the foundation has the most views on YouTube.

“Even people who are a light shade have spoken out about the fact that enough is enough, and you guys[Tarte] need to be more inclusive with releases such as this one,” Ashley says.

“I’m simply refusing to recommend a product – whether it’s good or bad – that isn’t made for everyone. I am going to hold Tarte accountable and say this is not acceptable, especially in this time it’s not acceptable at all and you guys need to get into the lab and figure out what you’re going to do to make everyone happy, because it’s no way in hell that you guys should launch a product everyone’s excited about, then you see the shade range and there are so many people out there bummed out because there is no product there for them.” Ashley states in her review.

Ashley is 100% right. To be white and a lover of makeup, it is profoundly wrong and disrespectful for a company to not be race inclusive. Makeup is not a “One size fits all.” It is for everyone whether you’re white, black, mixed, or of any other race. Right now, it is a time of society being inclusive of all races and appreciating what we all have to offer – that we are all people no matter our skin color. Tarte has no room for excuses with this release, whether they’re “In the process of adding more shades to the line,” they should’ve done it in the first place. This whole uproar has shown just how much the beauty community is pushing race inclusivity in makeup, and this is how it should be. It is just another small step towards racial equality not just in the realm of beauty, but the world. Let this protest and backlash be a message to companies for their future releases.